
K A T I O N 



DELIVERED BY APPOINTMENT OF THE COMMITTEES OF THE CORPOKA- 
TION, AND THE SEVERAL CIVfC AND MILITARY SOCIETIES, OF 
THE CITY OF ALBANY, AT THE METHODIST EPISCO-' "^ 

' PAL CHURCH IN NORTH PEARL STREET: 



IJJ" COMMEMORATION OF 



-^^^EEICAN INDEPENDENCE : 



JULY FOURTH, 1839. 



1 ••'^^ 



By SOLOMON SOUTHWICK 



Published in conformity to a Resolution of tlie Committee of Arrangements, and of the 
Common Council, of the city of Albany. 



ALBANY: 



PRINTED BY ALFRED SOUTHWICK, LAW BUILDINGS. 

1839. 




Book ■ . >^ s 



Digitized by the Internet Archive 
in 2010 with funding from 
The Library of Congress 



http://www.archive.org/details/orationdelivered01sout 



AN 



O E A T I O N 



DELIVERED BY APPOINTMENT OF THE COMMITTEES OF THE CORPORA- 
TION, AND THE SEVERAL CIVIC AND MILITARY SOCIETIES, OF 
THE CITY OF ALBANY, AT THE METHODIST EPISCO- 
PAL CHURCH IN NORTH PEARL STREET: 



IN COMMEMORATION OF 

AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE 
JULY FOURTH, 1839. 



By SOLOMON SOUTHWICK* 



Published iu conformity to a Resolution of the Committee of Arrangements, and of the 
Common Council, of the city of Albany. 



s 



ALBANY: \^^o,^ '' o^ 



PRINTED BY ALFRED SOUTHWICK, LAW BUILDINGS- 



1839. 



ORATION 



'^^ When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God 
shouted for joy," the burthen of that celestial song was the freedom 
of mankind. Well indeed then might the vaults of Heaven resound 
with the shout of triumph and of exultation, when the seal of re- 
demption was to be set upon the human race, and the celestial spirit 
of liberty was to descend upon the earth in the person and compan- 
ionship of the Son of God. This is no fiction of a poetic imagination, 
but a sober reality. Man was made a slave by the fall of Adam, and 
became free by the blood of Christ, and by that alone : Nor was the 
freedom, for the birth of which, when sung in heavenly strains, 
" the sons of God shouted for joy," a spiritual freedom only : It 
was, at the same time, the harbinger and the principle of moral and 
political regeneration ; the harbinger of all the pure and innocent 
joys that spring from human existence, human society, and human 
skill or labor ; all the blessings that flow from communion with God ; 
all the rights and privileges of self-government ; all the delights of 
love and friendship ; all the pleasures of intellectual intercourse and 
enjoyment : And, in short, all the harmonies of Nature, which 
bind man to man, which fill up the measure of his happiness, and 
constitute the climax of his glory. 

The same Almighty Being, therefore, who said, " Let there be 
light ;" and physical light came forth to dispel the chaotic darkness 
of the material world ; said also, Let man be free ; let moral and 
intellectual light dissipate the mist of his mind, whilst the fire of 
liberty shall warm his heart : And let these impel him onward in 
the paths of devotion, the labyrinths of politics, and the fields of lite- 
rature and science ; in exploring the heavens with all their plane- 
tary orbs, and searching into the secrets or mysteries of the air, the 
earth, and the ocean ; thus ascending the steeps that lead to the 



summit of human science, happiness and fame ; and thence to the 
everlasting heights, where saints and angels pour forth songs of 
gratitude and praise to "the giver of every good and perfect gift." 

That God intended man should be free, must be admitted at once 
by all who have studied his divine word. One passage of holy writ 
alone demonstrates it, beyond the shadow of a doubt. " God said, 
Let us make man in our own image :" And who that reflects for a 
moment on this passage, can believe that the Creator intended the 
being, upon whom He impressed the stamp of His own divinity, 
should ever become a slave ! Common sense, without the aid of 
logic, intuitively perceives the gross absurdity of a conclusion, so 
insulting to the wisdom and majesty of God, and the understanding 
and dignity of man. 

After creating man in his own image, it was perfectly natural and 
consistent, that God should confer, as he expressly did, upon this 
favorite being, " dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the 
fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the 
earth."' 

Here again we instantly perceive, that God would not have be- 
stowed upon his favorite, Man, absolute power over all other ani- 
mals, and endowed him, at the same time, with the exalted privilege 
of self-government, if He had intended that this superior, erect and 
graceful being, should ever bow the knee to earthly kings or ty- 
rants, or become in any shape the slave of his own race. 

These passages of the Divine Word also clearly unfold the reason 
why the Hebrews, as every thorough student of History knows to 
be the fact, were the only free people, the only true Republic that 
ever existed, until, by the Providence of God, the Republic of the 
United States had its birth in our glorious Revolution of 1776. 

The chosen people of God were absolutely and entirely free, as 
He intended they should be, under the pure and mild system of the 
Judges, and the Sanhedrim of their own choice, until they provoked 
Him, by their impious disobedience, to give " them a king in wrath, 
which He refused to take away in mercy." Well might He ex- 
claim, when He beheld their mad infatuation : — " I had planted 
Thee a noble vine ; how then art thou turned into the degnerate 
plant of a strange vine unto me !" Jer. ii. 21. And well might He 
resolve, at the same time, that since they had rejected His govern- 
ment, they should be given up, at least during His pleasure, to the 
delusion of their own corrupt imaginations, and ignorant and obsti- 
nate wills ; to that slavery and degradation which their ingratitude, 
in disobeying His Divine Injunctions, so justly merited. 



Thus we see that Monarchy flowed at first from the wrath of 
God : And hence we are not surprised, in spite of all the sophistry 
of its advocates, from the silly sons of Samuel, down to such sages 
as Filmer and Salmasius, that although it has inflicted curses innu- 
merable, it has rarely, if ever, bestowed a solitary blessing, upon 
mankind : It has been, it still is, and it ever will be, no matter 
what shape be given to it, the bane of the earth, until the returning 
mercy of God, which has already dawned upon the United States, 
shall relieve the human race from its cruelties and oppressions, and 
banish it back to its native regions of darkness. 

For a period of from two to three thousand years, Man labored 
under this curse of Monarchy, when God, whose mercy never tires, 
whose justice never fails, at length saw proper to lay the founda- 
tion of his deliverance. He inspired Faust with the sublime idea 
of the invention of printing ; and Columbus, shortly after, with the 
still more sublime conception, if that be possible, of the existence 
and discovery of a new world ; a new and a vast theatre of action 
for the human race : And on that vast theatre, of which " our own, 
our native land," constitutes so fair a portion, He commenced the 
divine operation of restoring to man his long lost political rights ; 
of re-investing his own image with its original brightness and 
divinity. 

Hither, in due season, came our pilgrim fathers, flying from their 
monarchical and hierarchical tyrants and persecutors : And here did 
they find time, not only to make " the wilderness blossom as the 
rose," but to reflect seriously upon the creation, nature and destiny 
of Man — his relationship to God — his duty to that Supreme Being, 
and to himself — the government that best suited him in this world, 
and the means by which he should find his way to another and a 
better one. 

Here, independent of vain, pompous and arrogant Hierarchs, t}^- 
rannical and despotic Kings and Princes, and titled and tinselled 
iniquity of every description, they breathed and enjoyed in its ful-= 
ness the pure atmosphere of freedom. Here, without let or hin- 
drance, they opened, read, and understood for themselves, the Sa= 
cred Volume ; and from that only true fountain of spiritual, moral, 
historical and political light, they found themselves more and more 
confirmed in their pre-conceived opinions, that Freedom was the 
original gift of Heaven — that Monarchy was afterwards inflicted as a 
curse — and that hence Rebellion to Tyrants was Obedience to God. 

Here too our gallant, our venerated fathers, renewed their ac- 
quaintance with those inimitable writings of Milton, Harrington, 



Sidney, Locke, Hoadley, Trenchard and Gordon, in vindication of 
the freedom and dignity of mankind : And thus did they prepare the 
way for that glorious revolution, the success of which we this day 
celebrate ; and of which Washington was the Moses, and Greek 
the Joshua ; the Congress of 1776 the nursing fathers ; Morris 
(Robert) the Sully or grand financier, and Paine the Tyrt^us. 
If indeed, great and unsurpassed as were the merits of Washington 
and Green, still, had not the unrivalled financial skill of Morris de- 
vised the means of raising money, and the vigorous pen of Paine 
delineated the charms and delights of liberty, the cause might have 
totally failed : For in that day Paine was an effectual instrument^ 
in the hands of Divine Providence ; then his muse, like the lyre of 
the deformed son of Archimhrotus, on the plains of Lacedemon, 
kindled in the bosoms of our fathers the sacred flame of freedom, 
cheered the toils of our sages in council, animated the hearts of our 
warriors on the battle field, and impelled them onward to victory 
and to glory. O ! how lamentable, how humiliating to the pride of 
human nature, that a man to whom God had given a genius so bril- 
liant, sublime and useful, should afterwards become the miserable 
dupe, the wretched victim, of his own bewildered reason and way- 
ward passions : And having forgot his God, and lost his conscience, 
should expire at last like Swift, his prototype, " a driveller and a 
show :'' For what Swift was, in a certain crisis, to the people of 
Ireland, Paine was, in a far more important crisis, to the people of 
these States. While, therefore, we lament his degeneracy, and his 
melancholy end ; let us not forget his invaluable services, nor prove 
ungrateful for them ; let his virtues live in our hearts and our memo= 
ries, while his errors and his vices lie buried with his bones. 

We owe, then, under Divine Providence, to Washington and 
Green, the Congress of 1776, Morris, Paine, and their coadjutors, 
" Solomons in council, and Sampsons in the field, ^' that great and 
glorious Revolution, which gave birth to the only free nation, the 
only true Republic, or Democracy, that has ever existed, since God 
overwhelmed with destruction the Egyptian Tyrant and his host, 
and with His " cloud by day," and His " pillar of fire by night," 
led His chosen people through the wilderness, and finally crowned 
their exertions with the blessing of a pure Democratic government 
I cannot, for obvious reasons, go into the proof here, that this is 
only the second Republic that has yet been instituted on earth ^ 
Would time and the occasion permit, however, I could prove, that 
excepting the Hebrews, neither the Persians nor the Egyptians, 
neither the Greeks nor the Romans, nor the men of the Middle 



Ages, nor any of the Modern European Nations, have ever enjoyed 
even the shadow of a true Republic or Democracy ; for to talk of 
Aristocratical Republics, Oligarchical Republics, and Monarchical 
Republics, and some other similar crudities, as one of our great and 
good men has done through a large volume, is, in my humble opi- 
nion, a waste of words. Any philosophic mind may indeed perceive, 
on a mere glance at the subject, that before the invention of the 
art of printing, the excitement of the Reformation, and the sublime 
and unparalleled discovery of Columbus, nothing in the shape of 
a true Republic, excepting that alone which God instituted in mer- 
cy, and dissolved in wrath, could possibly exist : For how, I ask, 
without the special exercise of Divine Wisdom and Power, could 
either a true simple, or a true representative. Democracy, like our 
State and Federal Democracies, exist among nations immersed in 
ignorance and barbarism, and consequently the miserable dupes of 
a mere handful of selfish, cunning, unprincipled and aspiring men. 

O ! what great reason have we to rejoice, that God has thus 
singled us out as the pioneer of nations, in reviving and extending 
on earth the sacred flame of liberty ; that hallowed flame which 
shall eventually consume, and scatter to the winds, the last vestige 
of Monarchy, and the last minion of Tyrants, and restore to 
the human race the unsullied image of their Creator, with the rights 
which he originally intended they should enjoy. 

Let us, then, on this day, briefly consider, how we shall preserve 
this lofty stand, this high and sublime character ; how we shall 
preserve the precious and the glorious privileges conferred upon 
us, and hand them down unimpaired to posterity. 

In the first place, permit me to ask, is it not our imperative duty 
to recollect, and never for a moment to forget, that God destroyed 
the genuine Democratic Republic, which He had bestowed upon 
His chosen people, and inflicted upon them the heavy curse of Mo- 
narchy, because they were ungrateful and disobedient to Him, from 
whose goodness they had received the precious boon of freedom. 
We are eager enough to look into profane history for lessons of 
wisdom and experience — and shall we not once recur to Sacred 
History, for a lesson, on the proper understanding and remembrance 
of which depends the salvation of our liberties, and those of all 
other nations. God gave freedom— pure Democratic Freedom — to 
the Jews : But they forgot their Divine benefactor — they deserted 
his holy altars— they disobeyed his laws— they became idolaters— 
they gave themselves up to avarice and foul ambition — they made 
money, instead of Jehovah, their god, and became the tyrants and 



8 

oppressors of their species : And lo ! where are now all their splen= 
did cities, and their lofty towers and battlements ? Jerusalem, their 
ancient capital, has dwindled into insignificance 5 and where are the 
cities of the plain ? Alas ! they are prostrate in the dust. Those 
which the sword of the conqueror spared, the fire of indignant 
Heaven descended upon and destroyed : And the owl and the bit- 
tern, the fox and the wolf, the lion and the jackall, as predicted by 
a prophet of God, now reign the sole tenants and sovereigns of the 
barren hill and the desolated vale. 

Having pointed out the first great duty, which we owe to God 
and to ourselves, it cannot be expected that I should dwell at large, 
on this occasion, upon all the other important duties, which our 
condition as freemen demands at our hands ; but I feel myself, ne- 
vertheless, bound to go as far at least as your candor and patience 
and my own strength will permit. 

Exert, then, I conjure you, all your energies, to extend the bles 
sings of sound education, without which there can be no true vir- 
tue ; and without true virtue there can be no solid and permanent 
freedom. To Charondas, of Greece, we owe the origin of com- 
mon schools. Though this ancient law-giver enacted some very 
silly laws ; yet he ordained, " that all the sons of every family 
should be taught reading and writing under masters in the pay of 
the public." " This law alone," says an American Sage, " has 
merit enough to consecrate to immortality, the memory of this le- 
gislator, and deserves to be imitated by every free people at least."* 
Let us, then, never remit our exertions to attain this great end. 
Let us never rest contented till all our public lands are divided 
equally between the several States of the Union ; and by each State 
constituted a fund, the interest of which to be perpetually appro- 
priated to the support of common schools, and the education of 
teachers to conduct them. 

Never lose sight of the union of these States, on its just and pro- 
per foundations of State Sovereignty and limited Federal Jurisdic- 
tion ; yielding neither to Nullification on the one hand, nor Conso- 
lidation on the other. With written fundamental Constitutions, such 
as no other nation, now in existence, has ever enjoyed, in posses- 
sion of the ballot boxes and universal suffrage, it will be owing to 
our own criminal neglect, if we split upon the small rock of nulli- 
fication, or the great ice-berg of consolidation. 

Nullification is the extreme of State Sovereignty ; Consolidation, 
the extreme of Federal Jurisdiction. We must indeed abhor and 

" John Adams. 



detest Consolidation under any pretext whatsoever : And respect- 
ing Nullification, though we might possibly find it necessary in 
some very extreme case; yet we should never forget, that the great 
cases, in which it has been more or less successfully resorted to — I 
allude to four cases of great and universal importance — do not ap~ 
ply to us now, as they once did to our fathers. 

Moses nullified the laws of Egypt, because their tyranny was in- 
supportable ; and there was no written constitution, no ballot-box, 
or right of suffrage, either limited or universal, to appeal to for re- 
dress. The sword was the only resort. 

The great head of the church, and his Apostles, for the same 
reason, among others, nullified, by the sword of the spirit, the laws 
both of Jews and Gentiles : For the words of the Saviour — " Ren- 
der unto CcBsar the things which are Cctsar^s^^ — implied neither sub- 
mission nor opposition to the Roman Government. 

Luther, and his party, on the same ground, nullified, at least sa 
far as they could do it, the laws of the Papal See. 

Washington, and his gallant companions in arms — the author of 
the Declaration of Independence, and all who signed it with him— 
did the same with George III. and his tyrannical laws : for as Eng-- 
land never had a written constitution, nor universal suffrage, to ap- 
peal to, the sword was the only weapon with which our Fathers 
could cut their way to the Temple of Liberty : And thanks be ta 
God, who inspired them with the virtue and the courage to do it^, 
they drew the sword, and threw away the scabbard ; and none but 
cowards, or willing slaves, will ever shrink from striking the same 
blow, under the same circumstances. 

The time must and will come, when the sword may be turned 
into the ploughshare, and the spear into the pruning hook, and 
peace and liberty be preserved without the aid of either. This is 
a promise of God, which will not fail. But till this promised bles- 
sing shall descend upon us, never yield the right to possess arms 5 
and to bear them, if necessary, in defence of your altars and your 
fire-sides, against domestic tyrants, as well as foreign foes : And 
never forget, that it will always be easier to drive a hundred legions 
of foreign invaders into the ocean, than to dispossess one domestic 
tyrant, who has become firmly seated in power, with the sword 
and the purse-strings at his command, and a servile majority to 
obey his nod. Never therefore give up your arms ; but never 
draw the sword to procure a redress of grievances, until all possi-- 
ble constitutional means have been repeatedly tried in vain : And 
then let your tyrants knoWj that your courage and fortitude are 



10 

equal to your generosity and forbearance. This example our gallant 
fathers gave us—let us never forget it. 

Never suffer a standing army, exceeding five thousand effective 
men, to be kept up in times of peace. A free people, indeed, ought 
to have no standing army at all ; but every citizen should be a sol- 
dier, and ready, at a moment's warning, to gird on his armor for 
battle against foreign foes or domestic tyrants. Standing armies 
have, in all ages, been the instruments of usurpation and tyranny. 
This vi^as the creed of our fathers ; and rather than keep up such 
an army of more than five thousand men, it vrould be better policy 
to encourage the voluntary formation of such companies, not ex- 
ceeding a regiment to each State, as our noble spirited Burgesses 
Corps, by furnishing their military equipments, on a pledge of ho- 
nor that they should be carefully preserved in good order as long 
as possible. The companies thus voluntarily organised and equip- 
ped, vrould constitute citizen soldiers in the true sense of the terms ; 
and being composed, as they would be, of young men of fair cha- 
racters, would feel the more forcibly the obligations of civil and 
political liberty and justice, which bind men to the true interests 
of thfeir country. 

Never suffer the liberty of the press, or the liberty of speech, to 
be unjustly invaded or impaired ; and never attempt to curb the 
licentiousness of either by ex officio informations, or public prosecu- 
tions. It is sufficient that individuals have the right of private or 
personal action for damages against the writers or publishers of 
libels that affect their characters or lawful pursuits and inte- 
rests. But the arm of the public should never be raised to crush 
the press under any circumstances. This, however, is not the time 
or the place for the argument. I will merely remark, therefore, 
that the only proper use of the press is to spread useful knowledge, 
and in this respect alone it is the Palladium of Liberty. The pub- 
lishers of licentious books, like the novels of Bulwer and his wife, 
and the editors of licentious newspapers, whoever they may be, are 
the worst enemies of mankind : And it would indeed be much to 
the honor of the press, and the credit of our country, if all of our 
publishers and editors would recollect, that the pens of those im- 
mortal spirits, to whom I have already alluded, Milton and Har- 
rington, Locke and Sidney, " overthrew the tyranny of the Stuarts, 
without the aid of ribaldry or licentiousness ; and that the illustri- 
ous Reformers of the fifteenth century, contributed largely to con- 
firm the morality of Europe, while they beat down the arrogant 
pretensions of sacerdotal and papal usurpation.''* 

* Helen Maiia Williama 



11 

Nullify at once and forever the doctrine of gratitude to youi 
public servants, unless it be for some very great service, beyond the 
ordinary routine of their public duties. Clinton, though Governor 
of a State only, was the benefactor of the Union, and hence he vras 
entitled to public gratitude. But as a general rule, vrhen you pay 
a President Twenty-five Thousand Dollars a year for his services, 
you owe no debt of gratitude either to him or any of his family. 
The obligation is altogether on the other side. The salary is both 
remuneration and gratitude enough for the ordinary services of any 
man at the head of any government in the world. Public gratitude 
is due only to those who serve their country gratuitously, as Wash- 
ington did with his sword, and Jeiferson, Franklin, Jay, John and 
Samuel Adams, Thomas Paine, Ezra Stiles, Solomon Southwick,* 
and many others did with the logic and the eloquence of their pens 
in the revolution. This is the true foundation of public gratitude. 
Can there be a grosser delusion, than to allow any man to pocket, 
as President, Two Hundred Thousand Dollars of the public mo- 
ney, of which, if he make the office, as he ought to do, " an office 
of business and not of s^ow5,"t he can save with ease One Hundred 
and Fifty Thousand ; and then allow him to tax the people with a 
debt of gratitude at the same time ! 

Never give up annual elections for your State legislative depart- 
ments, biennial for the Executive chair of a State, and for the house 
of Representatives of the Union, or quadrennial for the President 
thereof. 

So perfect do I conceive our federal constitution to be, that I am 
fearful of any attempt to amend it. Still I think it would be much 
gained for freedom, if the term of service of the Senators of the 
United States should be reduced to four years : That no Senator or 
Representative should receive any appointment from the President 
who should be in office at the same time with them : — And that no 
man under forty years of age should hold the office of President, 
Senator or Representative. A volume would not suffice to portray 
the evils, which history clearly proves to have arisen from the in- 
experience and rashness of precocious and undisciplined ambition. 

Never elect any man to any office whatsoever, whose private life 
is profligate or licentious ; for no such man can be safely trusted as 

^ My father, one of whose works alone fixed the minds of the people of Rhode-Island for the 
Revolution, as Gordon, the historian, acknowledges. In an article, which appeared in a Rhode- 
Island paper of 1813, written by a distinguished lawyer of Newport, it was said—" When the his= 
tory of this state shall be fairly written, justice will be done to Solomon Southwick." 

t It was John Quincy Adams, who said the Presidency '-^ ought to be an office of buaness, and 
aot of show." We owe Mr. A. a small debt of gratitude at least, for this maxim. 



1-2 

the guardian of a free constitution : But look out steadily and vigi= 
lantly to secure able and honest law-makers, as well as able and in- 
corruptible judges : For if you elect, or appoint, incapable or cor= 
rupt men to responsible stations, you not only jeopardise your liber- 
ties for the time being ; but you dampen and destroy the ardor and 
emulation of all men to qualify themselves for the service of their 
country. Why should any man labor day and night, in studying the 
works of historians and philosophers, to qualify himself for a states- 
man, when he sees every day ignorant men preferred to learned 
ones, and stupid men and knaves to men of genius and integrity. 

Never wish to discard a President at the end of his first term, if 
he has been faithful in that : And never, under any circumstances 
of peace or war, pestilence or famine, elect him more than twice. 
The example of declining a re-election, and retiring to private life, 
established by Washington and Jefferson ; and confirmed by Madi- 
son, Monroe and Jackson, ought ever to be considered a sacred law 
of the Republic. It should be considered the more binding, the 
more sacred, inasmuch as not only two such illustrious civilians as 
Jefferson and Madison, but two such immortal military chieftains 
as Washington and Jackson have sanctioned it ; the former by set- 
ting the first example, and the latter by following it : For it is well 
known, that like Washington and Jefferson, the farmer of Tennessee, 
the hero of at least two great wars, had popularity enough to have 
ran a third time with success ; but he had too much democratic 
virtue to attempt it. This, then, I repeat it, should be considered 
an inviolable and sacred law of the Republic. 

As a safe general rule, never suffer the expenses of your govern- 
ment to exceed its just and legitimate income ; and consequently 
never incur a state or federal debt, if it can be reasonably avoided ; 
nor tax the mouth of labor unnecessarily. 

Never yield to the Federal Government the right of making in- 
ternal public improvements : To do so, will be to destroy, without 
hope of redemption, both the Sovereignty and the Union of the 
States. Usurpation and Consolidation must and will be the inevi- 
table consequences. If we do our duty to ourselves and our pos- 
terity, we shall never permit that government to stick a spade or a 
pick-axe into the soil of a state beyond the limits of tide-water ; and 
then only for purposes clearly essential to " the common defence," 
or the " general welfare." On this one question alone, we shall 
find, that with us, " the price of liberty is eternal vigilance." 

Above all other considerations, would you perpetuate the pre- 
cious privileges which you now enjoy at the hand of Divme Pro- 



13 

videiice ; would you hand down unimpaired to posterity, the glo- 
rious Democratic Constitutions of your country ; then, I beseech 
you, never forget, that the Christian Religion is indispensable to 
the preservation of those precepts, principles, and moral virtues, on 
which alone liberty and justice can safely repose. The bare cir- 
cumstance, that our blessed Saviour chose his Disciples and Apostles 
without respect to persons, without the least reference to worldly 
station, wealth, or influence, proves clearly that Christianity was 
the ancient cradle of Liberty. It is indeed because there is little 
if any thing more than a merely nominal Christianity in Europe, 
that Tyranny there rides triumphant over the rights and dignity of 
human nature ; and that Monarchs, Hierarchs, Lords, and their 
minions, revel and riot in luxury and splendor on the hard earnings 
of the honest and industrious mechanics and tillers of the soil. It 
is a remarkable fact, worthy of being remembered on this day, that 
one of the Fathers of our Republic, Thomas Jefferson, acknowledges, 
" that he received his first correct notions of a republican form of 
government from the proceedings of a Baptist" — that is, a Christian, 
" Congregation in his neighborhood." Let us then, fellow-citizens, 
cherish the pure spirit of Christianity, and the safe and salutary in- 
stitutions of piety and devotion, which flow from it, and cannot 
flow from any other source. These, rely upon it, are the main 
pillars of our freedom, prosperity and happiness. 

I could multiply these brief admonitions, would the occasion per- 
mit, and were it not that I feel it my duty to be rather more pro- 
lix, on a subject which has been lately revived, though never fairly 
discussed, among us. A correct view of it, however, is important, 
at least to the stability of our freedom and prosperity. To come 
to the point, then, fellow-citizens, as the means of preserving that 
social harmony and good feeling, on which our freedom and happi- 
ness, as a people, so much depend ; let us beware of creating invi- 
dious distinctions, or exciting groundless jealousies, between the 
rich and the poor. Such distinctions, such jealousies, have here- 
tofore done much evil, involving whole communities in anarchy, 
violence and bloodshed ; for when once begun, there is no end to 
the heart-burnings, and the animosities, which grow out of them. 
In this country, where there is no ground in our civil, political, or 
religious institutions, for any such feelings, it is to be regretted, that 
they were first excited, whilst the present federal constitution was 
under discussion, by a book, written by Mr. John Adams, ostensibly 
in support of the constitution, and by a speech of Mr. Gouverneur 
Morris, in the Convention of 1787, which framed that instrument. 



14 

The doctrine of Mr. Morris's Speech, which is in spirit, if not 
literally, the same as that of Mr. Adams's book, is, that the House 
of Representatives, originating from the people, will ever be sub- 
ject to precipitancy, changeability and excess. To check these 
evils, he proposed, that the Senate should be composed of none but 
men of great and established property, an Aristocracy • and that 
besides their riches, to make them completely independent, they 
should be chosen for life, or they would be a useless body. This 
permanent, rich and aristocratic Senate, was to keep down the tur- 
bulency of Democracy ! " History proves, I admit," said Mr. Mor- 
ris, '' that the men of large property will uniformly endeavor to es- 
tablish tjT^ranny. How, then, shall we ward off this evil ^ Give 
them the second branch, and you secure their weight for the public 
good !" Again, said Mr. Morris, " the wealthy will ever exist ; 
and you never can be safe, unless you gratify them as a body, in 
the pursuit of honor and profit!" Mr. Morris concluded by avow- 
ing himself the advocate of a strong government ; and he asserted 
expressly, that " a government by compact is no government at all." 

The last clause is a hard saying of Mr. Morris ; for if the idea of 
a compact be excluded from the idea of a government, the latter is 
of course an absolute despotism. It denies the people to be even 
the source of power, much less the sovereign power itself. It is 
at war with sacred history ; for we there find that David especially 
made a written compact with the people, by which he was to be 
guided in his government. It is at war with all the republican 
writers on government ; for they all contend for a written social 
compact, and all insist, that where it is not written, it is implied 
from the principles of natural justice. 

It is not even remarkable, much less surprising, that such doc- 
trines should have caused, as they did, great murmurings among 
the people, and especially among the poor of that day. I myself 
heard those murmurings, and witnessed the excitement which they 
created in my native state ; for though Mr. Morris's speech had 
not then come to light ; yet Mr. Adams's sentiments were well 
known, and generally promulgated : And as we have lately wit- 
nessed something in the shape of an appeal to the poor on this sub- 
ject, in several public journals, let us now come to the question : — 

Does history prove, as Mr. Morris asserted, that the rich will 
uniformly endeavor to establish tyranny ? 

I think not. I believe it is not supported either by sacred or 
profane history. I shall however pass over the rich Noah and 
Abraham— the richer Job and David, and the still richer Solomon, 



15 

and other rich worthies of Scripture History, because they were 
cured by divine grace of any inordinate desire to oppress the poor, 
arising from their enormous wealth . Abraham proved his forbear^ 
ance in his noble spirited and generous conduct to Lot, in relation 
to the first dispute about property, of which we have either legal 
or historical record : And Job was literally the father of the poor ; 
for he not only fed and clothed them by hundreds, but defended 
them against every oppressor. Job, xxix. 30. 

Without further reference, therefore, to the ground of antiquity, 
I will at once come down to modern history, and refer you to the 
Italian house of Medici. They were rich — splendidly rich : But 
such was their noble spirit, that their wealth contributed largely to 
the advancement, not only of their native land, but of all Europe in 
science and freedom. A large portion of their splendid wealth, the 
just reward of their great commercial genius and enterprise, was 
lavished at the dawn of the revival of letters, in patronising the 
learned Greeks who fled from the capture of Constantinople, when^ 
through its fall by the Turkish arms, the last ray of old Roman 
Power and Glory expired ; " whilst a new era, pregnant with a 
purer philosophy than that of Aristotle ; a more diffusive spirit of 
intelligence ; a more improved state of the arts ; a more extensive 
cultivation of letters ; a more cordial and universal social and com- 
mercial intercourse between men and nations ; a more enlarged and 
rational view of human rights and duties ; and finally, a more mild 
and tolerant religious feeling began to shed its bright and cheering 
beams on the horizon of a too long benighted and barbarous world. 
Gibbon, Voltaire, and Roscoe, and indeed every writer on those 
times, concur in applauding the munificence of the Medici, than 
whom no family ever obtained popularity and power more deser- 
vedly. I may indeed safely add, that by the universal consent of 
his own countrymen, the Republic of Letters, and mankind at large, 
Cosmo de Medici was denominated the protector of the needy, the 
refuge of the oppressed, the constant patron and supporter of learn- 
ed men."* 

Another rich Italian, Niccolo Niccoli, devoted his life and fortune 
to the advancement of literature and science, and was the first man 
to establish, at his own expense, a public library in his native land. 

I could point even to a Monarch of France, a rare instance, it is 
true, among kings, but not the less deserving of credit, and his 
illustrious Prime Minister,! than whom no two men ever expended 
more treasure in diffusing happiness around them. 

^ See Roscoe's Life of Leo X. f Henry IV. and the Duke of Sully. 



16 

Juan Padilla was one of the richest men in Spain in the 15th 
century ; yet a purer, a more generous and exalted spirit never 
existed. Even the Poet Laureat of the British Monarchy, has be- 
stowed a glowing epitaph on the virtues of this illustrious enemy 
of kings, and friend of the people. From 1420 to 1422, the genius, 
valor and generosity of this noble Spaniard, sustained the cause of 
Freedom, to which he finally sealed his attachment with his heart's 
blood ; And to the honor of her sex, as well as her own glory, his 
illustrious wife, not only participated in all his toils and dangers, 
but after his death assumed the command of the patriot forces, de- 
fended Toledo bravely, gained several victories, and did not quit 
her post, till she was deserted by the cowardly citizens, unworthy 
of so glorious a leader, and a disgrace to their country and to hu- 
man nature. 

The De Witts of Holland were rich. They held the highest 
posts of honor, and had the best opportunities to accumulate great 
wealth ; yet John De Witt, like Juan Padilla, suffered a glorious 
martyrdom in the cause of liberty. He was a republican, and that 
was a sufficient crime, in the eyes of a royalist faction, for taking 
his life in the most barbarous manner. We have seen in this State, 
a descendant of this illustrious man, draw his sword for our liber- 
ties in the revolution, and live among us fifty years after that event, 
surrounded by well-earned wealth and prosperity ; but always the 
virtuous and inflexible friend of liberty and of mankind.* 

The two great German Reformers, John Wickliffe and Martin 
Luther, the former of whom, though of a rich and noble family, 
was called the " morning star of the Reformation," as we may 
Justly style Luther the meridian sun, were both of them surrounded 
by all the comforts of life, and might have had these heaped upon 
them ten-fold, perhaps a hundred, had they not preferred what 
they believed to be their duty to God and mankind, to the sweets 
of luxury and monastic ease. 

Lord Bacon, whom Pope basely, but vainly, attempted to hold 
up to the scorn of the world, was splendidly rich ; and whilst his 
unrivalled genius created a new era in Philosophy, his immense 
wealth was lavished in acts of the purest humanity, and the most 
disinterested benevolence. 

John Hampden was one of the richest merchants of England ; 
and "the greatest patriot Statesman of his times; the man whom 
the tyrant Charles I. would gladly have seen drawn and quartered ; 
whom even Clarendon," the scribe of monarchy, and the friend of 

' The late Simeon De Witt. 



17 

Charles, *' paints as possessing, beyond all his cotemporanes, i? 
head to contrive, a tongue to persuade, and a hand to execute ; and 
whom the fervent Baxter, another Royalist, " revered, as able-, by 
his presence, to give a new charm to the repose of the saints in 
Heaven :"* And yet we know, that this very rich and all-accom- 
plished private citizen of England, and Lord William Russell, one 
of her richest, most learned and illustrious noblemen, did not shrink 
from meeting death, the one on the field of battle, and the other on 
the scaffold, for the freedom and glory of their country. 

Algernon Sidney, that inflexible and immortal republican, born 
to inherit a title of nobility, and a splendid estate ; whose mind 
was illumined by the brightest beams of genius, whose brow was 
adorned by the proudest trophies of learning, and who wrote alto- 
gether the best book ever yet published on the subject of human 
government ; voluntarily sacrificed all these brilliant possessions^ 
and the fair prospects connected with them, in the same glorious 
cause, for which Hampden bled on the field and Russell on the 
scaffold. What reflects the most lustre on the memory of this rich 
patriot, is the fact, that like Curtius, he made a voluntary sacrifice 
of himself to his country. He was indicted for writing an essay 
in favor of Liberty ; but the tyrants who thirsted for his bloody 
had no proof of the authorship, but the circumstance, that the 
manuscript was found in his house. But rich as he was, possessed 
of all that could render life the more dear and death the more 
dreadful, he confessed himself the author of the work, sealing his 
own doom, and at the same time securing his immortality, by a 
declaration the noblest that ever flowed from the lips of man : — 
" When God," said he, " has brought me into a dilemma, in which 
I must either tell a lie, or forfeit my life, he tells me that it is time 
for me to die !" And what are we to think of the royal monster, 
and his servile judge, who could sacrifice such a man ^ 

In the late French Revolution, when it would not have been 
surprising, if a different spirit had prevailed amid the scenes of 
anarchy and blood that shocked the universe, many of the richest 
citizens proved their zeal for the cause of their country at the im= 
minent peril, and in many cases the absolute sacrifice of their lives. 

I could fill a volume with such examples of self-sacrifice and 
hallowed devotion to the cause of freedom, by rich men abroad ; 
but it is time to come home, and ask a few questions of our own 
altars and fire=sides, before we join in such sweeping denunciations 

■^ See Bancroft '3 inimitable History of the U= S= vol. i> 



18 

of the rich, as this of Mr. Morris— himself a rich man— or those 
which I have lately read in several of our political journals. 

First and foremost, then, in the galaxy of illustrious men, who 
shine on the page of history, or occupy the Temple of Fame, was 
not our beloved Washington as rich a planter in Virginia as John 
Hampden was a merchant in London ? And did that rich planter, 
surrounded by all the endearments and luxuries of life, hesitate a 
moment to risk his fortune, his fame, and his heart's blood, to re- 
deem his country from the grasp of Tyranny ? No— he did not 

hesitate ; but emerging from his plantation, at the call of his 

country, as the morning sun ascends the horizon to warm and cheer 
the animal and vegetable worlds ; he came forth to animate the 
hearts, and direct the energies, of his fellow-citizens, in a glorious 
struggle for freedom ; ready, alike, to wave the Olive Branch, in 
the spirit of mutual justice and benevolence ; or, that being re- 
jected, to " ride upon the whirlwind and direct the storm" of war. 
In imagination I now hear him urging the brave and the patriotic 
to defend the rights of their country and the cause of freedom : — 
Let us, says he, my friends and fellow-countrymen, have Peace, if 
with Peace we can have Liberty : But if not, then let us meet our 
enemies as they land upon our shores. Let us show them that we 
have minds to understand, arms to defend, and hearts ready to bleed 
for the freedom and glory of our country. If driven from one' 
stand, let us seize upon another : If we cannot do better, let us 
fall back and erect our standard upon the rocky mountains : And 
if hunted at last by the myrmidons of tyranny and oppression, to 
the verge of the Pacific Ocean, there let us give shout for shout, 
and blow for blow, till we turn the tide of battle on our foes, or be 
driven into the waves to become food for the monsters of the deep ! 

And who were the compatriots, that with Washington put their 
names to the Declaration of Independence ? Many of them were 
rich, very rich for the times ; and of whom the latest survivor, the 
noble-spirited Roman Catholic Carroll, was among the richest: 
And yet with the gibbet or the scaffold, and the executioner with 
his instruments of death, in the gloomy perspective, did these rich 
and noble-spirited men fearlessly sign the document which pro- 
claimed the liberty and independence of their country, which pro- 
claimed through the universe, from shore to shore, and from pole 
to pole, the downfall of tyrants, and the freedom of the human race : 
And to this Declaration they added the noble pledge of their lives, 
their fortunes, and their sacred honor, that they would persevere 
m the glorious strife till Liberty or Death should close the scene. 



19 

Again, look around this vast country, matle free by the generous 
sacrifices and the deathless deeds, of those rich, noble-spirited, and 
immortal patriots : And ask yourselves, fellow-citizens, whose mo- 
ney, whose liberality, whose patriotism and piety, have reared 
among us so many temples of literature, science and religion ; so 
many academies, colleges, churches and chapels, so numerous and 
so magnified, that almost every beam of the sun is obstructed by 
their spires. 

Who, may I not ask, can at this day travel from Albany to Lan- 
singburgh, without passing by the way a Temple of Science, es- 
tablished and liberally endowed, by one alone of those rich indivi- 
duals, who are the ornaments of their country and of human na- 
ture ; and who, notwithstanding many of their benevolent deeds 
are pubhshed by the voice of gratitude, still delight to 

" Do good by stealth, and blusk to find it fame?" 

Nor was the establishment and endowment of this Temple of the 
Muses, all that the rich individual alluded to could boast of having 
done for the good of his country and mankind, if his taste and edu- 
cation, his delicacy, dignity and elevation of mind and of heart, had 
permitted him to boast at all : For I can truly affirm, that from the 
same source, many other valuable public institutions were munifi- 
cently aided ; while far more numerous, if not more generous, 
streams of bounty flowed in private than in puWic channels, to 
•cheer the habitations of poverty, alleviate the pangs of sickness, 
heal the wounds of adversity, and animate the exertions of genius 
for the public welfare^ Nor can we forbear, even on this pressing 
occasion, to pay one more tribute to the memory of that good rich 
man, whose modest pathway through life, shone with a mild and 
steady splendor, illumined by the rays of his own goodness, mingled 
with the blessed beams of faith and of grace : For who more ready 
than he, when the trump of war called his country to arms, to 
forego the delights of social and domestic life, gilded, as they were, 
by the kindest and purest affections, and the most splendid gifts of 
fortune, for the privations of the tented field, and the perils of the 
day of battle ! O ! how beautiful in the eyes of the generous, how 
refreshing to the souls of the just, to behold the tears of regret and 
of gratitude flowing in a thousand streams, when this good mam 
died : And long, long will it be, before his country, and especially 
the sons and daughters of adversity, will again " look upon the like" 
of Stephen Van Rensselaer ! 

There is another illustrious name in the annals of our country^ 
whichj whenever I think of it, or hear it mentioned, comes upoK 

3 



20 

me, in the language of a beautiful poet, '^ like the memory of past 
joys, pleasant and mournful to the soul." I knew De Witt Clinton, 
when he was splendidly rich. I knew him again when he was 
assailed by the chill blasts of poverty, and the keen arrows of per- 
secution. But neither in prosperity nor adversity, did that great 
and good man ever harbor a wish, much less make an effort, to in- 
jure the liberties of his country : But calm and serene, amid the 
cares and toils of state, he was found faithful to her free Consti« 
tutions, steadily pursuing the Grand Improvements, which will 
enrich her through all time, and ensure his own imperishable fame. 

So Jefferson, Monroe and Tompkins, an illustrious trio, were all 
rich at one time, but all died in poverty : And where, at any time 
of their lives, did the poor ever find better friends, or the cause of 
liberty firmer advocates ? 

And again I ask, whose money has carried Missionaries, with 
the glad and glorious tidings of salvation, to the remotest corners 
of the earth ? And who are they that have built houses of refuge 
at home, for the blind, the deaf, the dumb and the insane ; for the 
unprotected orphan, the penitent Magdalene, and the worn out or 
aged seaman ? The rich, fellow-citizens, have done all this great 
good ; and without them it could not and would not have been 
done. 

With all due deference to the talents and memory of two &uch 
illustrious men as John Adams and Gouverneur Morris, I have said 
enough to prove, that wealth does not uniformly make tyrants of 
its possessors ; nor does poverty uniformly make patriots : For 
many a poor, vicious and worthless demagogue has enriched him- 
self and his posterity, by usurping the liberties of his country, and 
tyrannising over it. Of this we find sufficient examples in the con- 
flicts, from time to time, between the Plebeians and the Patricians 
of Rome ; and also in those numerous and bloody struggles for 
power and popularity, which occurred during the Middle Ages, a 
period of about a thousand years between the fall of the Western 
Empire of Rome in A. D. 475 and that of the Eastern in A. D. 
1453 ; such struggles as will never exist, where true religion and 
a corresponding education prevail. 

In the course of such conflicts, sometimes a poor native Dema- 
gogue has destroyed his country, and at others a poor foreign ad- 
venturer. But 1 must pass over these at present to come nearer 
home. 

When the poor Corsican Adventurer, Napoleon BuonapartCj 
grasped the sword and the purse-strings, in a country where he 



21 

was a stranger, and by various wheedllngSj as well as daring deeds, 
deceived the people, the liberties of France fell before him. No 
warning voice, like that of La Fayette, could stay his career ; no 
patriot pen nor sword could for a moment arrest the course of the 
Usurper. Those who had escaped the guillotine, under the tyranny 
of such poor demagogues as Robespierre, Marat and Cloots, were 
now driven by a more daring upstart, to be sacrificed on the field 
of battle, to sink into the morasses of Italy or Germany, or perish 
by thousands on the frozen plains of Russia : And here let me give 
you a friendly hint. Trust no man, who, being poor himself, sets 
out in life by declaring war against his rich neighbors. It is not 
by pulling down others, that a just man wishes to rise in the world, 
but by honest ingenuity, industry and enterprise : And the man 
who thus succeeds, will never, whilst running the race, envy either 
his immediate rivals, or those who have successfully gone before 
him. 

Of poor demagogues, rising by the basest means, from the lowest 
conditions, and doing great mischief, the occasion will not allow 
me to give but one more striking example, in the character of an 
adventurer, from whom not only Buonaparte, but other intriguers 
and usurpers, have learned the detestable lessons of a false and a 
foul ambition. Not far from the times, when some of the illustri- 
ous rich men I have named, were shedding their blood for the 
liberties of their respective countries ; and when the rich and truly 
illustrious house of Medici, by their great commercial enterprise, 
their immense wealth, and their Christian benevolence, were scat- 
tering blessings over their native land and the neighboring states ; 
cherishing by the noblest munificence, genius and science, litera- 
ture, liberty and religion ; a base and unprincipled upstart, the 
Abbe De Retz, whose poverty was exceeded only by his private 
vices, and his profligate sentiments, was raising himself, amid the 
civil commotions of France, by means of a vile and wicked system 
of intrigue, crime and corruption, to the highest station, save one, 
which either the state or the church could bestow. This poor and 
detestable profligate sat out with a determination to become Cardi- 
nal of France ; and he resolved, at the same time, that he would 
not stop at any means, however base, to gain his end. He cor- 
rupted the youth of France, so far as his machinations could reach 
them ; and the young men, in the Parliament at Paris, he made 
the instruments of his foul ambition, by exciting their jealousy 
against the aged, talented and venerable members ; and having ac- 
complished his designs, he left the victims of his duplicity, of all 



22 

parties — for he cajoled and cheated all by turns — to take care of 
themselves. His success was equal to his expectations ; but it 
was obtained through a sei'ies of complicated and unparalleled 
crimes and corruptions, such as none but the vilest of mankind 
could stoop to contrive, much less to execute. 

Having briefly noticed what this poor and vicious Demagogue 
was doing for his own benefit, at the expense of the ruin of France ; 
whilst the rich and virtuous Cosmo de Medici, was devoting his 
life, and his immense fortune, the fruit of his honest industry and 
enterprise, to the prosperity and happiness of Italy ; let us return 
for a few moments to a more grateful theme. 

This, of all others, is the day to do homage to the memory of 
Washington ; and the more especially as a celebrated British States- 
man has justly said, that " it will be the duty of the historian and 
sage, in all ages, to omit no occasion of commemorating this illus- 
trious man." Several more able pens than I can pretend to, have 
delineated the character of Washington, as it stands alone in its 
sublime native dignity — 

" As some tall cli^ that lifts its awful form, 
Swells from the val« and midway leaves the storm 5 
Though on its breast the rolling clouds are spread^ 
Eternal sunshine settles on its head." 

But I will now, in my own humble style, compare this ricli 
patriot — this Patriarch of Liberty- — with a once poor Demagogue 
In France, to whom I have already alluded ; a base and unprincipled 
adventurer, like De Retz, but aiming, by the same or similar vile 
means, at a far loftier flight. 

George Washington and Napoleon Buonaparte were both- 
practical methematicians and soldiers in early life ; but from the 
difference of their dispositions, they directed their civic and mili- 
tary talents to far different ends. Washington had acquired a splen- 
did fortune by his honest industry, before he came forward to risk 
all in attemptiiig to redeem the liberties of his country. Napoleon 
was poor, if not pennyless, when he commenced his career of usur- 
pation. Washington attempted in one shape, and a very proper 
one, what Napoleon did in another shape, and a very odious one. 
Washington nobly and generously aimed at leaguing the United 
Staftes in a confederacy for the good of the whole ; for the purpose 
of establishing liberty and justice, and the benign arts of peace and 
civilization, under the protection of law, and the mild, salutary and 
indispensable influence of religion. Napoleon aimed at forming all 
Europe into a grand consolidated mass, not for the good of Europe,. 



23 

but for his own personal aggrandizement : It was, that he might 
sit upon his blood-stained and blood-cemented throne, hke Jupiter 
on mount Olympus, and receive the servile homage of the nations 
he had conquered and enslaved. Washington aimed at becoming, 
and by the blessing of God did become, the benefactor of his coun- 
try and of mankind. Napoleon aimed at becoming the universal 
subjugator and tyrant of the human race. If Washington, through 
the frailty of human nature, ever committed an error, calculated to 
shed a malign influence on his grand enterprise ; the whole life of 
Napoleon was a tissue of such errors, to say nothing of the crimes 
connected with them. The course of Washington was the path of 
the just, shining brighter and brighter at every step. The path of 
Napoleon was that of conquest, ruin and desolation, in which no 
solitary gleam relieved the gloomy perspective, or enlivened for a 
moment its cheerless aspect. Washington was the modern Fabius, 
Napoleon the modern Alaric Washington, even in the heat of 
battle, was as anxious to spare the blood of his soldiers, as he was 
to gain the victory. Napoleon, eager for the victory alone, cared 
nothing for the blood and carnage which it cost. Washington 
signed with painful reluctance the death-warrant of an enemy^ 
although taken, tried and convicted as a spy, in league with Arnold^ 
the traitor. Napoleon, with cold-blooded malignity, ordered his 
enemy, the Duke de Enghein, to be shot, not for having acted as 
a spy, but as a man of frankness, honor and romantic heroism ; 
qualities which Napoleon neither possessed himself, nor respected 
in others. Washington served his country during the revolution^ 
without pay or reward, excepting his bare expenses, the modera- 
tion of which excited the surprise of many, aed the admiration of 
all. Napoleon knew no such magnanimity, and not only grasped 
immense sums from the public treasury, for his own benefit, but 
enriched every member of his family with the spoils of office, and 
the fruits of public plunder. Washington was never known to 
tremble at danger, or exhibit fear in any shape, however appalling 
may have been the circumstances by which he was surrounded. 
Napoleon, the fact is well established, when, like Cromwell, though 
from far less nobler motives, he turned the national representatives 
out of the capitol, trembled from head to foot, his blood recoiled 
upon his heart, and his face turned as pale as though the hand of 
death had passed over it ; whilst his brother Lucien, who was 
also his brother conspirator, though President of the Convention, 
reproached him in the presence and hearing of the spectators,^ for 
having betrayed his want of courage and self-possession. Wash- 



ington was great in every sense of the term. The God of Nature 
had stamped the character of his mind with grand and majestic 
features J and had given him at the same time a heart alive to every 
just and good impression = Napoleon was great in strength and 
brilliancy, but not in dignity, of mind ; and his heart was the seat 
of the worst of passions : And while we are not a little surprised, 
that so many brave and able generals followed in the train of a 
tyrant so selfish and unprincipled, we derive some small share of 
pleasure, at least, from the fact, that two of the best and bravest 
among them, Bernadotte and Moreau, denounced his tyranny, and 
disdained to submit to it. Plutarch gives to Romulus more honor 
than to Theseus, because he rose from small beginnings ; but he 
does not tell us whether he rose by fair or foul means ; for here 
lies the honor or the shame. We know that Washington, by a 
stern and steady adherence to truth and justice, rose from the hum- 
ble station of a land surveyor, to the Presidency of a great and 
free people. Napoleon, by every species of intrigue and deception, 
raised himself to Empire, it is true, but only to sink again into his 
original insignificance. Washington treated not only his own sol- 
diers, but his prisoners, with kindness and humanity. Napoleon 
would at any time sacrifice a regiment or a legion to gratify his 
selfish pride and vanity. Washington adhered faithfully, through 
life, to the woman who had won his early affections, and to whom 
he was married. Napoleon divorced himself from his first wife, 
basely deserting the woman to whom alone he owed all his pros- 
perity and splendor, to take another far less amiable and accom- 
plished, from motives of the meanest selfishness and the foulest 
ambition : Nor did he in this case alone, exhibit his total destitu- 
tion of principle, in his disregard of the matrimonial law, which 
Ood ordained : For he divorced his brother Jerome from the beau- 
tiful and talented young American wife, whom he had married in 
Baltimore, because she was not of royal blood, forcing his depend- 
ent brother to marry the daughter of a petty prince ; thus violating 
the most sacred of obligations, and severing the tenderest ties : For 
although he had no affection for the wife whom he had abandoned, 
nor for any other human being, any further than some selfish inte- 
rest bound him ; yet Jerome did sincerely love his wife, and felt 
the separation as a keen and incurable wound of the heart. Such 
was the pride of Napoleon, on this occasion, that he would not 
suffer the beautiful American wife of his brother to land on the 
shores of France ! Where, then, is the noble-spirited and virtuous 
woman — ^^vhere, then, is the brave and honest man — of the United 



25 

States — who can either respect the memory, or regret the fall, of 
this upstart tyrant ? Washington was the sincere professor and 
friend of Christianity : — " Of all the dispositions and habits," said 
that great and good man, " which lead to political prosperity, reli- 
gion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that 
man claim the tribute of patriotism, who should labor to subvert 
these great pillars of human happiness — these firmest props of the 
duties of men and of citizens." Napoleon was devoted to the cross 
or the crescent, as his interest dictated, being a Christian one day, 
and a Mahomedan the next ; a Roman Catholic one day, and a 
Protestant the next ; one day grossly insulting and basely plunder- 
ing the Pope, and the next courting his favor, inviting him to his 
court, and pretending to be his obsequious admirer. Washington's 
religion was of one complexion, one steady flame of pure piety and 
rational devotion. Napoleon's religion, if it be not a profanation of 
the term, had all the colors of the rainbow, with none of their bril- 
liancy ; and all the changes of the moon or the winds, without any 
of their benign effects. Washington, secure in the affections and 
the gratitude of a free people, voluntarily retired from power, to 
adorn and dignify the scenes of domestic ease and tranquillity. 

"AndO! Columbia, by thy sons caressed, 
There dwelt the Father of the realms he blessed: 
Who, no wish felt to make his mighty praise, 
Like other chiefs, the means himself to raise. 
But there, retiring, breathed in pure renown, 
And felt a grandeur thai disdained a crown 1" 

Napoleon, with no security in the affections, and no claims on the 
gratitude, of his country, or mankind, grasped the sword and the 
purse-strings, till they were wrenched from him by force, and then 
sought safety by an inglorious flight. Washington, thanks be to 
our God, and the God of our fathers, lived to see his benevolent 
and grand design accomplished, to see his country free, prosperous 
and happy; and died at last with all his laurels fresh upon his 
brow, without having lost a solitary ray of his pure and imperish- 
able glory. Napoleon, totally defeated in a career of usurpation 
and tyranny, unparalleled in the history of mankind, was banished 
to a narrow, solitary and dreary rock, in the midst of a vast ocean ; 
there to die a lingering and a miserable death, in which the justice 
of Heaven was as vividly displayed on the one hand, as the mean 
malice, treacherous hospitality, and cowardly fears of his enemies 5 
and especially of the British Government, were clearly evinced on 
the other. The life and death of Washington attract the universal 
admiration and envy of mankind : for who would not live the life. 



26 

who would not die the death, of the great and the good, the just 
and the righteous man ! The life and death of Napoleon, on the 
contrary, attract no admiration, excite no envy, from any enlight- 
ened and philosophic mind, or any honest and generous heart. 
Great, good, and brave men have wept at the tomb of Washington, 
the unassuming, honest and faithful republican chief. None but 
drivellers or dotards ever shed a tear over that of Napoleon, the 
upstart usurper and the remorseless tyrant. 

Again — Washington died glorying in the cross of his Divine 
Master ; and in the full assurance, that there was eternal life and 
unspeakable joy laid up for him in heaven. But Napoleon, in his 
last moments, found his future prospects as cheerless, and his heart 
as cold and comfortless, as the rock to which he was chained. 
Every view which Washington took of his by-gone days, could serve 
only to enliven his hopes of the future, and gild his prospects be- 
yond the grave : For like Enoch he had walked with God, and 
like Abraham he felt assured that his faith was imputed to him for 
righteousness. But whenever Napoleon turiled to the past, every 
view brought some fresh sting with it, to goad his conscience and 
to pierce his heart ; while the future was clothed with terrors that 
haunted him by night and by day. I have studied alt '"'story, both 
sacred and profane; and I fear not to assert, that its pages exhibit 
no spectacle more disgusting to a correct mind, or more de[ "^ing 
to human nature, than that of this Usurper and Tyrant, sub d by 
adversity, but unsustained by grace. Behold him fretting and fu- 
ming like a beldame at every trivial vexation ; and daily, if not 
hourly, venting his spleen, in the most unmanly and even childish 
ebullitions, upon his brutal military keeper, instead of rising supe- 
rior to the insults which he received from that insignificant and 
contemptible tool of power, and sustaining himself by communion 
with his creator, and the page of inspiration. But alas ! poor De- 
magogue, he had sunk the Emperor in the Exile, and the philoso- 
pher and hero in the dotard and pitiful complainer. He felt himself 
abandoned both by God and man, whilst no ray of peace or conso- 
lation enlivened the gloom of his .solitude, or pointed the way for 
him to another and a better world. We learn from the Journal of 
Las Casas, who shared his exile, and was his bosom friend, that 
just before his death he lamented bitterly his want of religion. On 
one occasion he called for the reading of our Saviour's Sermon on 
the Mount ; and though struck with the highest admiration of the 
simplicity and purity, the beauty and sublimity of the morality it 
contains, still he could not find in that divine composition the con- 



27 

solation which his hopeless condition required. It was in this 
state of mental anxiety and uncertainty, although flattered by his 
vanity to believe, that he had committed no great wickedness, that 
he exclaimed :— " What, then, would be my happiness, if the 
bright prospect of futurity presented itself to crown the last mo- 
ments of my existence!" O! miserable man! He had ridden 
upon the whirlwind, and directed the storm of a tremendous revo- 
lution ! He had usurped the power, and subverted the liberties of 
a mighty people. He had wielded that power to the prostration of 
Kings, and the destruction of Empires. He had received, on their 
bended knees, the homage of millions of slaves and sycophants. 
Even genius and learning had stooped from their high career to 
minister to his pride, to flatter his vanity, and to aid in perpetuating 
his power ! But in vain had minions bowed, and kings and em- 
pires fallen before him. In vain had the pride of learning and the 
splendor of genius been humbled and obscured by the fame of his 
achievements, the blaze of his glory, and the colossal magnitude of 
his power : And instead of looking forward with the great and 
good Washington, to a crown of righteousness and glory in heaven, 
his imagination was harrowed with the spectre of a crown of thorns 
in a far difT.rant region. The sun of Washington had set in mild 
and majestic splendor, cheering with its departing beams the liberal 
hopef-j^of |the. votaries of liberty and religion of all nations : But the 
sun„.Jf^apoleon had gone down in clouds and darkness, leaving 
none lo mourn his fall but the ignorant and deluded, or those con- 
genial spirits of foul ambition, who had shared with him the spoils, 
won by his unparalleled crimes and corruptions. Let no sickly 
sentimentalist say, that I am treading rudely on the ashes of the 
dead : I am, if I know my own heart, the last man to forget what 
is due to the memory of the good and the great, or to lose sight for 
a moment of that decorum which the grave silently but impressive- 
ly exacts from all who approach it. But the sacred cause of truth, 
freedom and humanity demands, that history should no longer veil 
the crimes and corruptions of usurpers and tyrants ; and that their 
tombs should be stripped of the false glory that surrounds them. 

The fate of Napoleon, however, does afford one ground of great 
consolation to the friends of freedom throughout the world. It 
holds out a perpetual lesson, a solemn warning to mankind. His 
life is on record ; and thanks to the invention of printing, that dark 
record cannot be lost, while time and art survive : And so of the 
soHtary spot where his relics lie buried. It seems to have been 
marked out by divine predestination, as a memento to all future 

4 



28 

ages. Scarcely a mound or a monument, a turf or a stone, now 
points the traveller to the tomb of any one of the thousands of ty- 
rants and oppressors, who have heretofore disturbed the peace, and 
trampled upon the rights of mankind. But the tomb of Napoleon, 
I rejoice to repeat it, can never be either lost or forgotten. Men 
of all nations, and of all ages to come, will pass in sight of it with 
every breeze that shall ever blow. Often will they find themselves 
becalmed around it in numerous ships, bearing the flags of every 
country and of every clime ; their eyes will behold the lonely spot ; 
their meditations will dwell upon it ; and they will hold converse 
of the Tyrant, whose ashes it entombs : And there will it thus 
stand through all time, as a beacon to warn the world against all 
such as he was : And let every one such, before he commences his 
foul career of usurpation, visit, in imagination at least, if not in 
reality, the solitary rock of St. Helena : And as he there hears the 
dark storm of the ocean sweep with a howling blast over the deso- 
late tomb ; and beholds the thunderbolts of heaven descending with 
awful sublimity on the desecrated and gloomy scene : Let him 
pause, let him meditate on the fate of this modern Alaric : Let him 
commune with his conscience and his God : Let him stay his foul 
purpose, and nobly resolve to become the friend of freedom, and 
the benefactor of his race, instead of the enemy of the one and the 
tyrant and destroyer of the other. Let him not reconcile himself 
to usurpation, by saying with Caesar, Cataline or Caligula, that his 
country is so degenerate as to need a master ; but let him say with 
Plato, that if he cannot contrive to exalt and save, he will not con- 
tribute to degrade and enslave her. 

But to return from this digresson, if it be one : — I have been ra- 
ther prolix on the subject of the rich and the poor, from a sense of 
duty alone to the cause of liberty, which must depend upon social 
harmony : For I have been taught to believe, that men are to be 
distinguished by their ignorance and their vices, in contrast with 
their talents and their virtues : And as God has made no other dis- 
tinction than this, excepting that of male and female, we cannot 
justly acknowledge any other. Let us not, then, excite or cherish 
prejudices between those, who, on the principles of our republican 
constitutions, ought to be united, if possible, in the common cause 
of liberty and humanity : But let us enquire of Truth, and she 
will teach us, that if Paul had been as rich as Croesus, he would 
still have died as nobly as he did, without a solitary murmur, in 
defence of her cause : And believe me, that riches would not have 
transformed Columbus into an Almagro or Pizarro ; nor would 



29 

poverty have made either of these cruel and mercenary tyrants to 
resemble him in his matchless genius and god-like virtues. So if 
the Medici, or Hampden, or Washington, had been as poor as the 
vile demagogues and upstarts, De Retz and Napoleon, their virtues 
vrould have been the same, whilst the possession of all their wealth 
would not have cured the latter of their vices. 

I cheerfully admit, what no well informed man will deny, that 
the unequal distribution of property, carried to extremes, may af- 
fect if not totally destroy the liberties of a nation ; for we know 
that it has, for nearly three thousand years, subjugated nearly all 
Europe. All that I have aimed at is, to convey the impression, 
that in proportion to their numbers, there have been no more con- 
spirators against the rights of man among the rich than among the 
poor ; and that it is neither wealth nor poverty, but perversion of 
mind and of heart, that makes men proud, imperious, or unjust : 
And this can be cured only by the light and the spirit of revelation, 
though it may be molified by the light of nature and common edu- 
cation : And here it may not be amiss to remark, that the greatest 
and vilest conspirator this country ever knew, the man, who, in the 
revolution, sold us all and received his price in British gold, though 
defeated in performing his contract, was Benedict Arnold, the poor 
demagogue of Connecticut, whilst the vigilance and fidelity of 
Washington, the rich planter of Virginia, foiled the Traitor, and 
saved his country. Arnold was involved in debt beyond the hope 
of extrication ; but still, if he had been an honest man, his poverty 
could not and would not have betrayed him into the commission of 
so great a crime. 

If the bulk of property in Europe be in the hands of the rich, it 
is owing to their old feudal system, and their ancient barbarism and 
ignorance- These gave to the crown, the nobility and the hierar- 
chy, the chief possession of the soil, and rendered the tillers of it, 
the farmers, not merely political slaves, as our fathers were before 
the revolution, but personal slaves, the same nearly as our colored 
slaves in the south. But here, with the exception just alluded to, 
the tillers of the soil are the lords of the soil ; the tenants are but 
few and far between ; and the proprietors nearly the whole popu- 
lation. Here no proud lord — for we have, thank Heaven, no such 
vermin as lords among us — with his parasites, his hunters and his 
hounds, in his train, can leap the land-marks and trample down 
with impunity the grass or the grain of the husbandman, or gather 
it into his own garners, when ripe for the scythe or the sickle, 
leaving only the gleanings for the mouth of labor : And here no 



30 

Priest or Bishop can demand tithes of us, or take them by force if 
refused : For here our rulers and our priests are our servants and 
not our masters ; here no man or set of men can impose laws, 
tithes or taxes, upon us, without our consent ; nor can tithes or 
taxes for the support of a priesthood be imposed at all : And here, 
then, we shall never have either the rich or the poor, but ourselves, 
the whole people alone, to blame, if by sanctioning unequal and 
unjust laws and privileges, we make the rich richer and the poor 
poorer, till property shall entirely change owners, and what is now 
so equally distributed among the many, shall be grasped in the 
hands of the few. But this can never be, so long as we preserve 
our state rights and constitutions as they now are ; the federal con- 
stitution of the Union as it now is ; all being based, as they now 
are, upon the principle of representation before revenue or taxation ; 
and the choice of our rulers by the ballot boxes and free and uni- 
versal suffrage, instead of having them imposed upon us by a king 
or a despot, and their tools or minions : And above all, so long as 
we shall feel, and act upon, the obligations which flow from Chris- 
tianity, and form the strongest and the only permanent foundations 
of freedom. 

Surely, then, where all possess equal rights under the constitu- 
tion and the laws of their country, none can have a right to com- 
plain. Still, even under a political state of things so just and equal, 
the most ingenious, industrious and enterprising, if Divine Provi- 
dence smile upon their exertions, will obtain the most wealth : 
And why should they not ? For to complain of this would be im- 
pious : It would be to find fault with our Creator, for having be- 
stowed upon our friend or fellow-countryman his superior qualifi- 
cations for the toils and enterprises of life. On the contrary, so 
long as the superior skill, enterprise and industry only of our rival, 
give him the advantage over us, we ought to rejoice, instead of 
repining, at his prosperity : For all good men must rejoice in the 
merited prosperity of their friends or fellow-citizens. But if the 
constitution, or the laws under it, or in violation of it, give my 
rival a privilege, which, under the same or similar circumstances, 
it denies to me ; and by means of this exclusive, unnatural, and 
unjust advantage, he triumphs and I fail, it makes him so far a ty- 
rant, and me so far a slave ; and I have then a right to complain. 

But I now come to a serious question. Since both Mr. Adams 
and Mr. Morris have argued, that the rich will tyrannise over the 
poor, and have recommended, therefore, to keep them quiet and 
good humored by fixing them for life in the Senate and other high 



31 

places in the state, the army and the navy ; it is time to enquire 
seriously, whether these gentlemen — themselves rich men — were 
in earnest in thus impeaching the rich ; or was it mere policy, 
adopted for the moment to carry a favorite point : First, to alarm 
the people, by showing them a Lion in their way ; and then per- 
suading them to put the dangerous beast into a splendid cage, a 
palace, becoming the ferocious dignity of his royal bruteship, and 
there to feed him with the richest and the choicest viands, instead of 
slaying him as Sampson did. I must say, indeed, that of all the rare 
cataplasms, or quack remedies, for physical, moral and political 
disorders, this new plan of curing tyrants of their inordinate and 
foul propensities, by placing them in the highest offices for life ; 
this proposition to lengthen and strengthen the claws of the Lion, 
or the fangs of the Serpent, instead of cutting them off or pulling 
them out, is of all others, ever known or heard of, in my humble 
judgment, the rarest illusion or hallucination of brilliant minds ! 
That such truly illustrious men, and profound geniuses, should hit 
upon such remedies to prevent or to cure political disorders, is at 
least one more proof that, in the language of Job, " great men are 
not always wise !" 

Let us, then, I repeat it, away with all mean suspicions, all vul- 
gar jealousies, between the poor and the rich : And let us all unite 
to secure to ourselves, and our posterity, the continuance of the 
blessings of Union, Liberty and Justice. 

To the poor and meritorious man of my country, I would say — - 
Does any rich man look upon you with contempt, merely because 
he is rich and you are poor, remember that it is his individual folly, 
weakness or wickedness, that excites the frown upon his brow : 
And upon such an arrogant fool, the poorest mechanic, or the hum- 
blest laborer, with a sound head and heart, may justly turn the 
sneer of scorn and contempt : He may say to him, in the conscious 
pride of honest American Democracy : — Who art thou, weak and 
vain upstart, that dares to turn up your nose at a fellow-creature, 
made like yourself in the image of his Creator ; and who, if his 
wealth be not equal to yours, has that within him which you do 
not possess — a mind enlightened and guided by the principles of 
justice, and a heart warmed and animated by the fire of freedom : 
And, therefore, as my father once said to thy father, get thou be- 
hind me, vain reptile as thou art, and shrink into thy native insig- 
nificance ! 

And to the rich man of my country, I would say : — Forget not 
your origin in the common clay of which God created man : If born 



32 

rich^ abuse not the blessing, and be grateful to God who bestowed 
it upon you : If born poor, still be grateful to God for raising you 
from poverty and obscurity to wealth and distinction ; unless indeed 
you feel conscious that your path to wealth and distinction has been 
the path of iniquity. But seek not, whether your wealth and 
standing have been justly or unjustly acquired, to trample upon the 
liberties of your country : For whoever shall attempt that, will 
find, to his confusion and disgrace, that if his countrymen are poor 
in purse, they are rich in spirit. He will indeed find, too soon for 
his vile purpose — and Lexington, Bunker Hill and Saratoga, Mon- 
mouth, Germantown and Yorktown, attest the glorious fact — that 
there is a spirit in the bosoms of Americans, which will make him 
feel, that he has to encounter — 

" Men, high minded men '. 
Men, who their duties know, 
But know their rights, and knowing dare maintain ; 

Prevent the long aimed blow, 
And crush the Tyrant while they rend the chain 1" 

Thus much would I say both to the poor and the rich man : And 
I would at the same time, sincerely exhort you, my hearers, and 
all of our fellow-countrymen, never for a moment to suffer intoler- 
ance, bigotry, false pride, or party spirit, to blunt your feelings of 
humanity or benevolence ; but make Truth alone the guide, and 
Liberty alone, both temporal and spiritual, the object, of all your 
political, moral or religious conflicts. Well indeed might the patriot 
muse of France, in the fervor of generous sentiment, exclaim — 

« O LIBERTY • can man resign THEE, 
Once having felt thy sacred flame? 
Can dungeons, bolts, or bars confine THEE, 
Or whips thy noble spirit tame 1" 

O ! how sublime and beautiful, in its proper sense, is the very 
name of Liberty ! Liberty, the gift of God, the glory of men, 
of saints and of angels ; the terror of tyrants ; and the theme of 
that song which was sung by the Morning Stars, when all the sons 
of God shouted for joy ! O ! what a scene for God and good An- 
gels to behold, was that, when Freedom had her birth in the coun- 
cils of Jehovah ; when the vaults of Heaven resounded with the 
song of her triumphs to come ; whilst Hell trembled to its founda- 
tions, and Lucifer, the father of Kings, Tyrants, and Monopolists, 
" grinned horribly a ghastly smile," and flew to hide himself in the 
deepest recess of his dark domain ; there to bewail the fall of his 
power, and the inevitable fate of his tyrannic offspring, from Ne- 
buchadnezzar, driven by God, for his crimes and corruptions, to 



33 

herd and to feed with the beasts of the field, down to Napoleon, his 
modern Representative, exiled by the same Divine Providence, for 
the same crimes and corruptions, the same hostility to his country 
and to mankind. In comparison v^^ith these two Tyrants, whom 
God so justly doomed to destruction, the present Monarchs of Eu- 
rope are but the dwindled and insignificant pigmies of the old Sa- 
tanic brood. Still, they are the same enemies to freedom and hu- 
manity ; the same enemies of their people, and of the human race : 
And moreover, they are at this moment plotting the ruin of this 
country, because it is the only abode of Freedom on earth, and 
they dread the example it holds out to mankind : But thanks be to 
God, a storm is now gathering, which will sweep them all, not, I 
hope, after Nebuchadnezzar and Napoleon ; but into the ranks of 
private life, where, uninfluenced by the arts of their old master, 
and yielding to a purer and a holier spirit, they may redeem their 
lost time, by repenting of their crimes, and praying for acceptance 
at the Throne of Grace : For there the blood of thousands of mar- 
tyrs, like Warren and Montgomery ; Brissot and Roland ; Emmet 
and Fitzgerald ; Lount and Matthews ; Von Schoultz and Perrault ; 
Abbey and Woodruff; still cries aloud to Heaven for vengeance, 
and will be heard : For never yet did the Almighty turn a deaf ear 
to the cry of innocent blood. Yes, I repeat it, from the tombs of 
these martyrs, and of thousands of other martyrs, to the sacred 
cause of freedom, a flame is now ascending and spreading, from 
" the Towers of Julius," in the modern Babylon, to those of the 
Tyrant Turk on the banks of the Euxine ; and from the Palace 
Royal of Madrid, to that of the Northern Autocrat, upon whose soul 
the guilt of destroying the liberties of Poland, and butchering her 
heroic defenders, now presses with a weight, which divine grace 
alone can prevent from bearing it down to the dark realms of eter- 
nal perdition : And that flame, by the blessing of God, shall sweep 
all Tyrants from their blood-stained Thrones, and consummate and 
consecrate the freedom of the human race. 

Gentlemen of the Civic and Military Associations ! 

I should fail in my duty here, were I to pass over in silence 
the harmonious and delightful manner in which you have come to- 
gether to celebrate the birth day of freedom. It is a beautiful and 
sublime spectacle, and excites emotions to which words would fail 
in giving utterance, to behold so many different associations, resting 
on so many various foundations, and with such variety of laudable 



34 

objects in view, rushing like the mingled waters of so many pure 
and limpid streams into this sanctuary, to rejoice with one accord 
in the possession of that liberty which was the first best gift 
OF God to Man. The moral which it conveys should never be 
lost sight of — never, for a moment, be forgotten : — In Union there 
is moral beauty and sublimity : In Union there is civil, political 
and religious liberty : In Union, there is national strength, safety, 
and glory. This, gentlemen, is the grand and impressive moral, 
which the union, on this day, of so many different civic and mili- 
tary societies, whose brilliant emblems and decorations blend to- 
gether like the colors of the bow of promise, must convey to every 
liberal and enlightened mind, every warm and generous heart. I 
could not say less, and I need not say more, to gentlemen, whose 
presence here, under such harmonious circumstances, evinces that 
they are devoted, intellectually and sentimentally, to the liberty, 
prosperity and glory of their country. 

Brave and venerable Heroes of the Revolution ! 

How ought you to rejoice, that the hallowed flame of liberty, 
destined to consume the tyrants of the earth, first kindled by the 
breath of God in the bosom of Moses, was re-kindled by the same 
Divine Power in the bosoms of Washington and his fellow-laborers 
of 1776, with whom you had the honor to stand, side by side, in 
defending with your trusty swords the liberties of your native land. 
I congratulate you on the return of this day, in which you have 
so much reason to rejoice at the recollection of what God has gra- 
ciously done for your country and yourselves. On her He bestowed 
the precious boon of liberty in the revolution : And you He saved 
through the perils of that awful conflict, to enjoy the fruits of your 
generous valor, in her prosperity and happiness, and to witness on 
this day the commencement of the sixty-fourth year of her free- 
dom and independence. Well, then, may you look back with 
honest pride and joy upon the past : And well may you look for- 
ward with the calm eye of hope to your future prospects, and with 
pure and unmingled delight on those of your country : For, believe 
me, the present day is but the dawn of that light, freedom and glo- 
ry, which, thanks, under God, to your valor, and that of your 
brethren in arms, the nations of the earth are destined to receive 
from these shores. 

There seems, indeed, to have been a prophetic ministering spirit 
at the side of Rogers, when, in the last canto of his beautiful poem, 



35 

" The Voyage of Columbus," he introduces the vision of an An- 
gel, addressing Columbus in his sleep. " Not thine," says the 
Angel, to the slumbering but immortal son of Genoa — 

" Not thine the olive but the sword to bring, 
Not peace, but war ; yet from these shores shall spring 
Peace •without end : From these, -with blood defiled, 
Spread the pure spirit of thy master mild I 
Here, in his train, shall arts and arms attend. 
Arts to adorn, and arms but to defend ! 
Assembling here, all nations shall be blessed, 
The sad be comforted, the weary rest !. 
Untouched, shall drop the fetters from the slave,. 
And HE shall rule the world, HE died to save 1 
Hence and rejoice ! The glorious work is done, 
A spark is thrown that shall eclipse the SUN 1" 

Such, my venerable and venerated friends, is the destiny of your 
country, which I rejoice to believe can neither be retarded nor 
averted, by any Aristocracy, Oligarchy or Hierarchy ; by any up- 
start Usurper, Despot or King : And to that high destiny, how 
grateful ought you to be, that your valor and achievements have 
been made instrumental by the Divine Power. Did purer glory 
ever glitter on the brows of the living ! Did brighter laurels ever 
bloom on the graves of the dead ! Farewell, my friends : And 
since my race as well as yours is nearly finished, let us pray for 
the precious hope, that should we never meet here again, we may^ 
through the merits of our Divine Redeemer, meet hereafter in. 
another and a better world I 



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